One of the main Renault models in the Brazilian market, the Sandero, leaves the country closing a 15-year history. The sedan is only available in dealerships in the S Edition version with 1.0 L engine.
However, in the statement sent yesterday regarding the launch of the Stepway 1.0 L, the manufacturer indicates that this new version replaces the Sandero S Edition, which is therefore retiring.
The end of the Renault Sandero was expected. Although the automaker announced a strategy in May 2020 that would lead to a new generation of Sandero and Logan, sharing a platform with Nissan, the plan has changed. In 2021, the manufacturer announced the strategy Renewal and stressed that it would carry out a repositioning of the brand in Latin America, moving towards the sale of more refined, more expensive and therefore more profitable cars.
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This was reiterated by Luca de Meo, CEO of the French company, during a press conference held in Brazil. At the time, the executive said Sandero and Logan would survive “a few more years”, following the life cycle of these two vehicles. And we’ve seen Renault shrink the duo’s offering over time. The long-awaited automatic CVT version lasted less than two years and ended sales last February, while the Sandero was reduced to just the S Edition configuration, also greeting the sporty Sandero RS.
Final Renault Sandero RS
Even Stepway 1.0 shouldn’t last long. Renault is working on a new compact SUV, its first CMF-B platform car that will be produced in São José dos Pinhais (PR), with dimensions similar to the Fiat Pulse. This model has also been confirmed by the brand and will mark the debut of the 1.0 turbo engine in the country, although it has no set launch date. The project for the new generation of Sandero included a plan to change the name to Clio, taking advantage of the fame it had in the country.
The Renault Sandero was born in 2007, presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show (Germany) as part of the Dacia brand, the low cost division of the company. Produced with the B0 platform of the third generation of Clio, it arrived in Brazil in December of the same year, as an option above the national Clio. It maintained that positioning even when the Clio rolled off the production line, this time as a larger and better equipped alternative to the Kwid.
It obtained its second generation in 2012 in Europe, which arrived in the country only in 2014, after the restyling of the domestic sedan in 2011. It has continued to have a positioning oriented towards cost-benefit and made improvements throughout his career, such as the arrival of the new 1.0 and 1.6 SCe engines. The Stepway was a version of the Sandero range, with a more adventurous side, offered since 2008, but which was treated as a model in its own right in 2017 and is today the only survivor of the Sandero range in Brazil.
